If the World Cup 2010 winner is…
Price-earnings ratios? Book value? Charts? All are perfectly sensible ways of picking stocks to buy. But as the world's great sporting tournament gets into high gear in South Africa, here's a different investment angle — buying shares based on likely winners of soccer's World Cup.
Admittedly, designing a portfolio around soccer rather than financial results isn't the most scientific way of allocating assets. Still, there's little question that sporting triumph or calamity can affect national moods — and that in turn, often seeps into the way people spend and invest their money.
Whatever happens, you want to make sure you've positioned your investments well ahead of the final, scheduled for July 11. And now, ranked according to the odds quoted by bookmaker Ladbrokes, we offer some trades you should be thinking about — depending on which nation you think will win the Cup. (Story by Matthew Lynn, a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. ) [photo: Bloomberg]